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CL Factory Manager

The
Challenge

CL Factory is a full-stack, real-time factory floor management platform built to coordinate and monitor manufacturing operations across multiple specialized workstations. The system manages everything from job scanning and status tracking to label printing, parts verification, and truck loading — all synchronized with Monday.com for end-to-end production visibility.

Running a manufacturing floor means juggling dozens of concurrent jobs across multiple specialized stations — assembly, packaging, cabinet scanning, parts verification, loading — with no single tool that ties it all together. Before this system, factory operations faced:

  • No real-time view of which jobs were in progress, paused, or completed across stations
  • Manual, paper-based label generation leading to mislabelled or missing items
  • No enforced workflow for truck loading (driver + manager sign-off)
  • Monday.com boards updated manually and often out of sync with the floor
  • No automated alerting when FTP job imports stopped working

The
Solution

A purpose-built, full-stack web application serving as the live command center for the factory floor. Each workstation gets its own tailored UI — optimized for barcode scanning, touch interaction, and Zebra label printing — while a shared backend keeps all data consistent and in sync with Monday.com.
Multi-Workstation UIs
  • Dedicated pages for each station type: Kanban, Assembly, Packaging, Parts, Cabinet Scanning, Loading, Panel, and Label Printer
  • Each station UI is purpose-built for its workflow — scan-heavy, touch-friendly, and auto-refreshing
  • IP-whitelisted access ensures only registered factory machines can reach sensitive stations
Real-Time Job Tracking
  • Jobs scanned at any station update status instantly across the system
  • Complex job state machine handles: Not Started, Started, Paused (Lunch / Night / Weekend), Completed, and Not Required states
  • Duration tracking logs how long each job takes from start to finish
Zebra Label Printing
  • Client-side ZPL label generation — no print server needed
  • Two label formats: 4×2.5" for high-volume runs and 4×6" for detailed item labels
  • Embedded Code39 barcodes, order numbers, and timestamps
  • Real-time Zebra printer status monitoring via BrowserPrint
Monday.com Deep Integration
  • Jobs, schedules, and statuses sync bidirectionally with multiple Monday.com boards
  • Cursor-based pagination handles boards with 500+ items efficiently
  • Mutations update job columns, add labels, and validate machine route assignments
Truck Loading Station
  • Enforced two-scan workflow: driver scans first, manager approves second
  • Generates printable shipping manifests
  • Per-order undo capability and loading history
Automated Cron & FTP Sync
  • Scheduled jobs import work orders from FTP every 30 minutes (production)
  • Monday.com board syncs run on staggered schedules to avoid rate limits
  • Cron jobs pause automatically for lunch and overnight windows (timezone-aware, America/New_York)
  • If FTP sync goes stale during business hours, automated email alerts fire via AWS SES
Dashboard & Reporting
  • Live completion rates and WIP quantities per station
  • Bottleneck analysis, cabinet scan reports, and slim reports by door type
  • Configurable auto-refresh intervals (seconds / minutes / hours)

Scope &
Scale

  • 10+ specialized workstation UIs, each purpose-built for its station type
  • Multiple Monday.com board integrations (manufacturing, scheduling, kanban, stack order)
  • Timezone-aware cron scheduling with automatic pause/resume for lunch, nights, and weekends
  • Two Zebra label formats generated fully client-side with embedded barcodes
  • Automated FTP monitoring with email alerting on sync failures
  • IP whitelisting for workstation-level access control

The
Outcome

The platform gave the factory floor a single, always-on control center — station operators, managers, and Monday.com boards all working from the same live data.

Operators scan barcodes and print labels without leaving their workstation UI; managers see live job status and completion rates on the dashboard; and Monday.com boards stay accurate automatically rather than through manual updates. FTP failures that once went unnoticed for hours now trigger immediate email alerts, and the loading station's two-scan workflow eliminated unsigned shipments.